


White Collar

by Nightsister



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-23
Updated: 2011-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-15 21:25:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightsister/pseuds/Nightsister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Professionals knew how courtesy calls worked. Episode filler for 1x18, Loa Aloha.</p>
            </blockquote>





	White Collar

Danny woke up early, even for him, to make this call. It had been bugging him the moment he'd learned that FBI agents were investigating his little brother.

Peter should have called him. They were on friendly terms. Or if not exactly friendly, well then definitely professional. And professionals knew how courtesy calls worked.

He dialed the number he'd programmed into his contacts list years ago and hoped it hadn't changed. It had been awhile. Was it too early for a call? Not possible - Hawaii was was five hours behind the East Coast. Was it too late? Was this an old number? Would Peter even remember him?

"Peter Burke's phone."

The breezy, decidedly male voice momentarily caught him off guard. Danny was expecting Peter or maybe his wife (wasn't Peter married? Danny thought so), but this was a stranger's voice and therefore, surprising. Danny didn't like surprises that didn't involve his daughter and a weekend off, or a cannoli cake and some balloons. But he barreled through.

"Yeah, this is Detective Danny Williams," he said. "I'm looking for Peter Burke. Who's this?"

"One moment please, I'll see if he's around." The voice on the other side maintained its cheerful tone, but Danny, from years of listening to suspects swear on their mother's lives that they didn't kill nobody, no way, detected the immediate tension. Interesting.

"Danny? It's Peter. Good to hear from you. It's been what, a year now? How's Hawaii?" Leave it to Peter Burke to remember. Danny's optimism grew. He could get through this with some of his dignity intact, at least.

"Hey, Peter. Hawaii's good. Not great, but good enough." Danny paused for a silent breath, then went for it. From what he knew, Burke was a straightforward, stand up kind of guy. He would help if he could. "Listen, I guess you can tell that this isn't a social call."

"I'm listening."

"Yeah, thing is, I want to ask you about a federal investigation on a hedge fund manager out of New York."

"Hold on... Okay, give me the details."

Danny could hear the squeak of a chair and the clacking of fingers on a keyboard and breathed a sigh of relief. Peter, who didn't fully know what Danny wanted, was willing to help anyway. Normally Danny would have felt guilty for even dragging someone into something like this, but this was for Matt.

Maybe he still felt a bit of guilt.

"Danny?" Peter's voice was curious and kind, not suspicious at all. Danny was a fellow officer of the law, and they'd proven their worth to each other years ago, during the Russian mob bust in North Bergen. Peter lived in a world where integrity and upholding the law meant something. Danny felt worse by the second.

"Yeah, I'm here. Listen, I think I made a mistake. I'm sorry-"

"Is this about Matthew Williams?" Peter broke in quietly. "He a relative?"

Danny's stomach dropped. Peter's unit was investigating. Peter knew. "I just found out," he ground out, trying not to show the panic he felt. "He's my brother."

More clacking noises, and a muffled "Yeah, gimme a sec," and Peter was back. "I'm sorry, I- wait a minute." There was a long pause as he typed furiously, cursing under his breath. "Look, there's not much I can tell you-"

"That I figured," Danny replied, calmer now. The inevitability of the situation was dawning on him, but that didn't mean there weren't any options. "But still, Peter, you could've-"

"No, I mean there's not much I can tell you because it's not my case," Peter replied.

"What?"

Some shuffling of files, more typing. "This isn't one of mine. I've never even seen the file. It's in the active cases database but there's very little information, of course. Just the special agent in charge, the suspect, the case number, some other things. Wait. The guys on this case are out of Newark but they never came to me. And I recognize the names on the team but I don't know them all that well."

Danny scratched the side of his face and changed the receiver to his other ear. Hope bloomed in his chest - an unorthodox investigation meant something was wrong. "Isn’t that kinda fishy?"

"I'll say." Peter sounded grim. "Investigating a white collar crime in New York City and I don't know about it? Yeah, someone's gonna pay for this. Although..." he trailed off.

"What?" Danny felt the hope die. "What is it?"

"I know why I wasn't notified," Peter replied.

"Why?"

"Think about it. That Russian case was a pretty big deal. It was in the papers, on TV, lots of interdepartmental and inter-agency work. There were multiple homicides involved in two states. We spent four months just building up to the bust, remember?"

Danny thought back, more confused than anything else. It had been one of the crowning achievements in his career as a detective, a seemingly simple homicide in Newark that had led to an arson in a Union City home goods store, a warehouse in North Bergen, the Brighton Beach Russians, and eventually to the FBI's New York Organized Crime and White Collar units. Ruiz from Organized Crime had been sort of a dick but Peter Burke from White Collar had stood out as the kind of guy you could count on for back up when things went south, and for a beer and a few good stories later, after the criminals had been put away. Danny had even thought highly enough of him that he'd been invited to the going away party.

Which Matt had organized. Shit.

"I still don't know what you're getting at."

"We worked together," Peter said slowly. "You were the lead detective for Newark PD and I was the SAC for White Collar. Even my wife knows who you are. If they were going to start investigating one of your family members, they’d never in a million years give me the case."

It all made sense now, but it didn't help him feel any better. "Oh. Yeah, I see your point."

"Still, I should've been notified." And Danny could actually hear Peter's frown over the phone. "If they think that Caffrey-"

"Who?"

"Nevermind," Peter said quickly. "Listen, I'm really sorry about what you're going through. I know my Newark counterpart and he's tough, but fair. They wouldn't send agents out to Hawaii if they didn't think they had a case."

Danny felt the deep cold dread in his stomach turn white hot. "But they don’t have a case," he said angrily. "There’s no way Matty could've done the things they said he did."

"Hey, I know very little about this, okay?" Peter answered, his voice smooth and placating. "And obviously I don't know your brother at all. But you're absolutely sure that not only is he innocent, but that he's completely incapable of doing the things they're charging him with? This list is pretty specific, Danny. And we're talking millions of dollars."

"No." Danny was stubborn. "I know him, Peter. No way."

Peter sighed, a loud and resigned noise that made it clear that Danny had better be right about this. "I can get the actual file but I can’t get it right away," he said. "That's the least they can do for me, since this is my jurisdiction and technically I should've been given the courtesy to refuse the case." Another muffled sound, and more voices in the background. "Hey, I have to go. I got things I'm working on but I won't forget, all right? Hopefully I'll have something for you in a few days. And call me if you need anything in the meantime."

"Thanks, Peter." Danny hoped his voice transmitted his immense gratitude all the way from Oahu. "Tell Agent Jones I said hi."

"Will do, Danny. Take care of yourself."

As Peter hung up, Neal Caffrey came bounding into his office with his usual _bonhomie_. "Was that the same Detective Williams who helped you bust the Sidorov counterfeiting ring?"

"Yeah." Peter sat still for a few moments, lost in his thoughts. He had kept in touch with Danny Williams off and on in the years following that case, mostly for professional reasons but he thought for friendlier reasons as well, in the end. Peter had been honestly sad to see Danny's marriage fall apart, and even sadder to see him go. And now this.

"Well?" Neal demanded. "What did he want?"

"Maybe too much," Peter replied. "We'll see."

**Author's Note:**

> As soon as those goofy FBI guys showed up, I thought, "Why isn't Peter Burke handling this? This is his turf!" And thus, fic was born.


End file.
